Many popular consumer beverages are formed by adding a flavored mix to a liquid. The flavored mix is provided in various forms including syrups, powders, and the like. One common consumer beverage category includes chocolate-flavored drinks such as chocolate-flavored milk and hot chocolate.
Production of chocolate-flavored drinks often includes mixing syrup or powder into a liquid. Powdered mixes are typically formed by dry blending powder ingredients, or by spray drying, freeze drying, or a rewet agglomeration process followed by grinding into fine agglomerates or powders. The fine agglomerates or powders used in known mixtures have small particle size. While they can provide good dispersibility/solubility in warm liquids, these small particles have slow dispersibility and/or low solubility in cold liquids. For this reason, syrup is commonly added to make a chocolate-flavored beverage when starting with a cold liquid, even though powdered mixtures are commonly added to a hot liquid.
The small particles of powder mixtures can float, which in combination with general decreased solubility of materials in cold liquids, compounds the difficulty of using powders in those situations. Additionally, the small particles can form a dust which can be messy and increases difficulty in handling and using powder mixtures. The problem of slow dispersibility or low solubility in cold liquids for making chocolate-flavored beverages is further exacerbated by the presence of cocoa powder to provide a chocolate flavor. Cocoa powder is difficult to wet and/or rehydrate in cold liquids.
These and other drawbacks are associated with current materials used for forming flavored cold cocoa or chocolate beverages.